Tech

Google victorious in Viacom's YouTube lawsuit

JohnLetzing

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A federal judge has ruled in favor of Google Inc. in the company's courtroom battle with Viacom Inc. over alleged copyright violations on Google's YouTube video service.

Judge Louis Stanton wrote in a 30-page ruling filed in New York on Wednesday that Google
GOOG, -1.72%
qualifies for so-called "safe harbor," and is therefore granted summary judgment that it's protected against Viacom's "claims for direct and secondary copyright infringement."

Since then, the companies have waged a war of legal filings; Viacom has divulged internal YouTube emails that seemed to acknowledge copyright infringement on the service, while Google has charged that Viacom itself has posted its material on YouTube for promotional purposes.

Viacom spokesman Jeremy Zweig said in a statement that the ruling Wednesday is "fundamentally flawed," adding that, "We intend to seek to have these issues before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit as soon as possible."

Google said in a statement posted online that the ruling is "an important victory not just for us, but also for the billions of people around the world who use the web to communicate and share experiences with each other."

Viacom's headline-grabbing lawsuit was filed only about five months after Google announced it would pay some $1.65 billion to acquire YouTube, which was rapidly gaining popularity as a place to easily post video clips.

Since then, YouTube has evolved to include several forms of licensed, professionally-made content that frequently features advertising.

Intraday Data provided by SIX Financial Information and subject to terms of use.
Historical and current end-of-day data provided by SIX Financial Information.
All quotes are in local exchange time. Real-time last sale data for U.S. stock quotes reflect trades reported through Nasdaq only.
Intraday data delayed at least 15 minutes or per exchange requirements.